Top Quark Measurements at the Fermilab Tevatron

The top quark, discovered at the Tevatron in 1995, is a very interesting particle. Precise measurement of the top properties using large data samples will allow stringent tests of the Standard Model and offer a unique window on new physics. In this report will be reviewed the status of the current knowledge of the top quark as provided by the Run I results of the CDF and D0 experiment. A first look at various preliminary measurements obtained with data collected during Run II will be also presented.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figures Proceeding of Lepton-Photon 2003, Fermilab Batavia (IL), August 200

Comments on "Wall-plug (AC) power consumption of a very high energy e+/e- storage ring collider" by Marc Ross

The paper arXiv:1308.0735 questions some of the technical assumptions made by the TLEP Steering Group when estimating in arXiv:1305.6498 the power requirement for the very high energy e+e- storage ring collider TLEP. We show that our assumptions are based solidly on CERN experience with LEP and the LHC, as well accelerators elsewhere, and confirm our earlier baseline estimate of the TLEP power consumption.Comment: 6 page

Behaviour of parallel girders stabilised with u-frames

Lateral torsional buckling is a key factor in the design of steel girders. Stability can be enhanced by cross‐bracing, reducing the effective length and thus increasing the ultimate capacity. U‐frames are an option often used to brace the girders, when designing through type of bridges and where overhead bracing is not practical. This paper investigates the effect of the U‐frame spacing on the stability of the parallel girders. Eigenvalue buckling analysis was undertaken with four different spacings of the U‐frames. Results were extracted from finite element analysis, interpreted and conclusions drawn

Physics Behind Precision

This document provides a writeup of contributions to the FCC-ee mini-workshop on "Physics behind precision" held at CERN, on 2-3 February 2016.Comment: https://indico.cern.ch/event/469561

Unifying gauge couplings at the string scale

Using the current precision electroweak data, we look for the minimal particle content which is necessary to add to the standard model in order to have a complete unification of gauge couplings and gravity at the weakly coupled heterotic string scale. We find that the addition of a vector-like fermion at an intermediate scale and a non-standard hypercharge normalization are in general sufficient to achieve this goal at two-loop level. Requiring the extra matter scale to be below the TeV scale, it is found that the addition of three vector-like fermion doublets with a mass around 700 GeV yields a perfect string-scale unification, provided that the affine levels are $(k_Y, k_2 ,k_3)=(13/3, 1, 2)$, as in the $SU(5) \times SU(5)$ string-GUT. Furthermore, if supersymmetry is broken at the unification scale, the Higgs mass is predicted in the range 125 GeV - 170 GeV, depending on the precise values of the top quark mass and $\tan \beta$ parameter.Comment: 11 pages, 4 eps figures, using jpconf style, talk given at CORFU2005, RTN meeting ``The Quest for Unification: Theory Confronts Experiment'', 11 - 18 September 2005, Corfu, Greec

Attitudes toward Teaching English in Lebanon: An Exercise in Critical Applied Linguistics

Critical Applied Linguistics (CALx) is both a means of examining the status quo governing the teaching and learning of languages and an opportunity to change or transform existing assumptions and practices. Within the multilingual context of Lebanon, my initial assumption was that English foreign language teachers have not explicitly scrutinized their attitudes to the language they teach or its impact on Arabic (L1). Teacher education and professional development have also not appeared to provide an opportunity to facilitate such a discussion. As such, my study based itself upon the assumption that current teacher education and training have established and reaffirmed mainstream attitudes to the teaching and learning of foreign languages in Lebanon. In order to examine my critical position, my study involved two main phases. Using action research with a mixed methods approach to data collection, the first phase included a survey of 62 English language teachers from different contexts: primary, middle, and high school, in addition to tertiary education. The purpose of this survey was to determine whether teacher attitudes would be mainstream or explicitly critical. In the second phase, I created an intervention in the form of a ‘reflexive practice model’, wherein nine in-service English language teachers, from different contexts as well, would meet to discuss relevant critical themes in the hopes of creating a platform for dialogic inquiry and transformation. Following the model set by Kumaravadivelu (2012), these sessions would value both professional and personal knowledge as participants negotiated their espoused attitudes, with emphasis on the local, ‘lived’, experience. The results of my research showed that teachers, in general, had some mainstream attitudes to the teaching of English, especially the need for early exposure to a foreign language, maximum exposure through English as a medium of instruction, and the monolingual fallacy. They also commonly taught English without reflecting upon any power dynamics or hegemony involved. While most participants agreed that the Arabic language might be suffering because of these practices, they did not believe they had any active role to play in order to preserve L1. However, they were also critical of certain pedagogical practices, especially related to teaching resources and policies that left them feeling powerless and passive. They also mostly believed that their professional development opportunities were insufficient and involved sporadic, expert-led, sessions that were not immediately relevant to their context. From an action research perspective, the ‘reflexive practice model’ was successful as it allowed participants to discuss their assumptions and identity as a whole, creating some immediate change in attitudes and practice, in addition to a feeling of empowerment and hope in a better future. Participants also concluded that such communities of practice would provide in-service teachers with a voice that they could later amplify both within their institutions and beyond, through publishing their findings and participating in conferences in Lebanon that included both ‘experts’ and the practicing teachers. Thus, this ‘reflexive practice model’ can provide an opportunity for continuing – and critical - professional development that also allows participants from different institutions to support one another as they reflect upon their identity and practice

TLR7-mediated skin inflammation remotely triggers chemokine expression and leukocyte accumulation in the brain

Background: The relationship between the brain and the immune system has become increasingly topical as, although it is immune-specialised, the CNS is not free from the influences of the immune system. Recent data indicate that peripheral immune stimulation can significantly affect the CNS. But the mechanisms underpinning this relationship remain unclear. The standard approach to understanding this relationship has relied on systemic immune activation using bacterial components, finding that immune mediators, such as cytokines, can have a significant effect on brain function and behaviour. More rarely have studies used disease models that are representative of human disorders. Methods: Here we use a well-characterised animal model of psoriasis-like skin inflammation—imiquimod—to investigate the effects of tissue-specific peripheral inflammation on the brain. We used full genome array, flow cytometry analysis of immune cell infiltration, doublecortin staining for neural precursor cells and a behavioural read-out exploiting natural burrowing behaviour. Results: We found that a number of genes are upregulated in the brain following treatment, amongst which is a subset of inflammatory chemokines (CCL3, CCL5, CCL9, CXCL10, CXCL13, CXCL16 and CCR5). Strikingly, this model induced the infiltration of a number of immune cell subsets into the brain parenchyma, including T cells, NK cells and myeloid cells, along with a reduction in neurogenesis and a suppression of burrowing activity. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that cutaneous, peripheral immune stimulation is associated with significant leukocyte infiltration into the brain and suggest that chemokines may be amongst the key mediators driving this response

Flavor changing scalar couplings and tγ(Z)t\gamma(Z) production at hadron colliders

We calculate the contributions of the flavor changing scalar ($FCS$) couplings arised from topcolor-assisted technicolor ($TC2$) models at tree-level to the $t\gamma$ and $tZ$ production at the Tevatron and $LHC$ experiments. We find that the production cross sections are very small at the Tevatron with $\sqrt{s}=1.96TeV$, which is smaller than 5 fb in most of the parameter space of $TC2$ models. However, the virtual effects of the $FCS$ couplings on the $t\gamma(Z)$ production can be easily detected at the $LHC$ with $\sqrt{s}=14TeV$ via the final state $\gamma l\bar{\nu}b$ ($l^{+}l^{-}l\bar{\nu}b$).Comment: 10 pages,5 figure

Proceedings of the Workshop on Monte Carlo's, Physics and Simulations at the LHC PART II

These proceedings collect the presentations given at the first three meetings of the INFN "Workshop on Monte Carlo's, Physics and Simulations at the LHC", held at the Frascati National Laboratories in 2006. The first part of these proceedings contains pedagogical introductions to several basic topics of both theoretical and experimental high pT LHC physics. The second part collects more specialised presentations.Comment: 157 pages, 136 figures; contribution by M. Grazzini has been adde